TRN-32-07-00001-A Rates and Charges at Republic Airport
3/12/08 N.Y. St. Reg. TRN-32-07-00001-A
NEW YORK STATE REGISTER
VOLUME XXX, ISSUE 11
March 12, 2008
RULE MAKING ACTIVITIES
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
NOTICE OF ADOPTION
I.D No. TRN-32-07-00001-A
Filing No. 190
Filing Date. Feb. 25, 2008
Effective Date. Mar. 12, 2008
Rates and Charges at Republic Airport
PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following action:
Action taken:
Amendment of Part 78 of Title 17 NYCRR.
Statutory authority:
Transportation Law, sections 400 and 402
Subject:
Rates and charges at Republic Airport.
Purpose:
To revise the fees paid for use of Republic Airport by individuals and businesses.
Text or summary was published
in the notice of proposed rule making, I.D. No. TRN-32-07-00001-P, Issue of August 8, 2007.
Final rule as compared with last published rule:
No changes.
Text of rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:
Michael Geiger, Department of Transporation, 7150 Republic Airport, Rm. 216, East Farmingdale, NY 11735, (631) 752-7707, e-mail: mgeiger@dot.state.ny.us
Assessment of Public Comment
Our office received 22 letters commenting on the proposed changes to Rates &Charges. Four letters were received from pilots or pilot organizations, who would be directly affected by the new rates &charges, and 18 letters from the elected officials and community around the airport.
David Goldberg notes that two other airports on Long Island, MacArthur and Brookhaven, do not charge landing fees for based aircraft and tie-down fees at those airports are lower. MacArthur Airport has both commercial and general aviation uses and generates much of its revenue from commercial operations. Republic Airport does not have commercial service. Brookhaven Airport recently increased its landing fee from $2 to $5 for transient aircraft. According to Brookhaven Airport Management, there are a number of flight schools that are not based at the airport and use the facilities for flight training. About 75% of Republic Airport's operations are conducted by based aircraft. As mentioned when the rule was initially proposed, this requires the airport to either charge based tenants or drastically increase the fees charged to non-tenants to cover the loss of income. Since the rates will be increasing significantly for most transient aircraft, adding to that burden with a much more substantial increase would be punitive.
There are only about 50 paved tie-downs at Brookhaven Airport. All other tie-downs are grass. MacArthur Airport also has a mix of paved and unpaved tie-downs. The approximately 200 tie-downs in the Echo Ramp of Republic Airport are all paved, which generally generate higher rents than unpaved tie-downs. Furthermore, Republic Airport has a long waiting list for tie-downs, which justifies charging higher rates, and the fixed-base-operators on the airport charge a higher fee for tie-downs. The new fees will still be below the market rate on the airport.
Robert E. Gordon, on behalf of the Republic Airport Pilots Association, states support for the new fee structure and that it is fair to all users.
Eugene J. Pileggi, on behalf of Pilots United At Republic, comments that there has been a rapid growth in the non-flying tenant population and that the airport is required to operate without a profit. In the past ten years, only one non-aviation tenant started business operations at Republic Airport, the Courtyard By Marriot hotel. So while the airport is receiving more rent because of the hotel, this is a minimal increase compared to the increased cost of operating the airport. The proposed increase in rates &charges will not result in the airport making a profit. The increased income will be used to bring the airport back to a state of good repair. Many of the facilities at the airport have not received the preventive maintenance that is needed to keep them operating well. This has resulted in deterioration of the facilities. As an example, about 50% of the taxiways are either in poor or failed condition. The increased income will be used to repair these taxiways.
Bill Dunn, on behalf of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, requests the increase in tie-down fees be phased in over a protracted period. They also request that airport management more regularly reviews rates and charges. We agree that rates and charges should have been reviewed more frequently since 1992 and if increases were instituted about every five years, each increase would have been about 10 percent rather than the 38 percent increase being requested. During the initial comment period pilots expressed a negative reaction to the increase being instituted at one time. That is why the final proposal phased the increase in two steps, one immediately upon adoption of the rule and the second in April, 2008. Since this is the only increase for recreational pilots (landing fees and fuel flowage fees will remain the same), and no increase has occurred in 15 years, we believe increasing the tie-down fees in two steps is the best compromise.
Steven Bellone, Babylon Town Supervisor, comments that landing fees should be in line with New York Port Authority fees (Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark, and Teterboro airports). His other comment is that increased tie-down fees may discourage recreational pilots from basing at Republic Airport. Several residents also requested higher landing fees for the larger aircraft using Republic Airport. Most suggested a fee structure similar to Kennedy Airport. Their belief is that landing fees lower than the major New York City commercial airports will encourage the aircraft using Kennedy and LaGuardia to use Republic instead. Republic Airport is a general aviation airport. General aviation airports support recreational and business aviation. There is also a limited amount of charter activity at the airport, mostly traveling to casinos or carrying Long Island based sports teams. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports are almost exclusively commercial airports. Almost no traffic from these airports could use Republic since no commercial traffic is allowed at Republic Airport. Republic Airport currently charges $0.40 per thousand pounds maximum gross weight. Kennedy Airport charges $5.35 per thousand pounds maximum gross weight and LaGuardia Airport charges $6.60 per thousand pounds maximum gross weight. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports each have about 1,000 operations per day by larger commercial type aircraft. Republic Airport has about 1 operation per day by larger commercial type aircraft operating as charters. If the landing fee were the primary measure of operations, Republic Airport would have a much higher percentage of landings as compared to Kennedy and LaGuardia. The reason this is not the case is; Republic Airport does not have the space or facilities to handle any volume of commercial traffic, the primary origin or destination of the travelers is New York City, and Republic Airport does not have commercial service. Additionally, increasing the maximum fee by 500% will not encourage planes to start using Republic Airport. The fee being proposed by Republic is much more in line with general aviation airports and airports with a mix of general and commercial aviation that have a similar amount of larger aircraft using the facility. The Supervisor also states that recent infrastructure improvements would allow larger jet aircraft to be based and operate out of Republic. However, there have been no improvements at the airport designed for larger, commercial aircraft. All improvements to taxiways and hangars are designed for aircraft with less than 79 foot wingspans. Typically, major commercial airplanes have wingspans larger than 79 feet. In regards to tie-down fees, Republic Airport has a large waiting list. If some of the tenants decided to base their planes elsewhere, there would not be an issue with filling those spots and therefore keeping the maximum amount of smaller, recreational aircraft at the airport. Furthermore, the tie-down fee has not increased in 15 years. In that time inflation is up nearly 50% and the proposed increase is well below that amount. In conjunction with no increase in landing fees for these aircraft and no increase in fuel flowage fees for these aircraft, the additional expense to recreational flyers is minimal.
Frank P. Petrone, Huntington Town Supervisor, is similarly concerned about rates being less than the commercial airports in New York City and the issue of a master plan at Republic Airport. The rates issue is discussed above and a master plan at the airport is not related to rates and charges.
Elie Mystal, Suffolk County Legislator, is opposed to any schedule that will offer an incentive for use by larger aircraft at Republic Airport and requests that the rates reflect the rates at surrounding airports. As discussed above, the airport is increasing the maximum fee for larger aircraft by 500%, which does not offer an incentive for larger aircraft to increase their operations at the airport. Also, airports such as MacArthur Airport, Westchester County Airport, and Gabreski Airport are surrounding airports that have similar amounts of general aviation aircraft operations. Republic Airport will have the largest fees of these airports for the largest aircraft by at least $100. Therefore, the airport will be charging fees that are higher than the surrounding airports of similar nature.
Rose Hobbins on behalf of the North Massapequa Civic Association, Robert Queen on behalf of the Woodland Civic Association, Mark Neadel on behalf of the Country Pointe at Melville Civic Association, and Nancy Schliwka all want fees similar to Kennedy Airport and most of these respondents request a public meeting for rates and charges. As discussed above, there are very few commercial type aircraft operating at Republic Airport. Increasing the fees by 500% will not make the airport more desirable for these aircraft. In regards to a need for a public meeting, the airport has provided many opportunities for comment by the aviation and non-aviation community. A list of the outreach efforts is described below:
— Meetings on February 14, 2006, May 15, 2006, and June 12, 2006 with the Long Island Business Aviation Association.
— A letter sent on February 23, 2006 to tenants on the airport providing a summary of the proposed rates.
— Meetings with the pilot community on March 15, 2006 where rates and charges was one of the two main topics and again on March 14, 2007 to further discuss the issue.
— Meetings with the “Key Tenants” on the airport on April 5, 2006 and October 4, 2006.
— A letter sent on May 8, 2006 sent to elected officials and over 50 community groups requesting input on the proposed rates.
— Discussion at multiple Republic Airport Commission meetings including April 18, 2006, where the proposal was distributed and comments were requested; June 13, 2006; December 12, 2006, when a resolution was passed by the Commission supporting the proposed changes; and at every commission meeting held this year to update the Commission and community on the progress of the proposal.
— Comments received through 2006 were replied to on December 21, 2006.
— Discussion at multiple Community Working Group Meetings.
— Another mailing informing the community that the proposal was published in the State Register on August 8, 2007 and that comments would be accepted for 45 days. This document was also posted on the airport's web site.
Many of the respondents either attended at least one of these meetings or were sent correspondence by mail. The only comment submitted by the communities concludes that by raising fees 500%, the airport is encouraging aircraft to use the airport. Based on the substantial opportunity provided for comment on this proposal, we have concluded that there has been sufficient outreach and opportunity provided to comment both verbally and in writing and no further public meetings are necessary.
Kevin R. Norton, on behalf of the Residents of East Farmingdale Civic Association, and Helen G. Norjen request rates for jet aircraft be equal to that of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. While Teterboro Airport is a general aviation airport, it has a different characteristic than the other airports in the metropolitan area that service general aviation aircraft. Teterboro Airport is located about five miles from Manhattan and almost all of its traffic is business jets bringing passengers to and from Manhattan. As a result, Teterboro Airport has about 150,000 jet operations a year and significant delays for aircraft using the airport. By comparison, Republic Airport had about 17,500 jet operations in 2006, or about one-eighth the operations of Teterboro. Other airports handling general aviation aircraft are more representative of Republic Airport and Republic's rates will be higher than those airports when the rates and charges are approved.
Hilda K. Carmen, Eileen Lamdan, Eileen James, Carol Meschlow on behalf of the Concerned Citizens of the Plainview-Old Bethpage Community, and Alissa Sue Taff, on behalf of the Civic Association of Sweet Hollow, request rates and charges should be equal to other facilities. As discussed above, Republic Airport is basing its new rates and charges on other general aviation airports in the area.
Carol Bromm, on behalf of the Daniel Street Civic Association, states that aircraft over 60,000 pounds are not supposed to land at Republic Airport. While this issue was raised and responded to in the first comment period, it should be noted that there is a court injunction against Republic Airport having a requirement for prior permission for aircraft weighing over 60,000 pounds. Therefore, it would be illegal for the airport to deny access to aircraft over 60,000 pounds.
Kevin Doherty, Anthony and Anna Mae Timko, and Barbara Miller requested that rates and charges should be substantially increased. The highest landing fee rate will increase from $0.40 per thousand pounds to $2.00 per thousand pounds, a rate 500% higher than the existing rate. This is a substantial increase of the existing fee.
Carl Loiacano, on behalf of the North Lindenhurst Civic Association, sent a copy of a letter from Assemblyman Robert K. Sweeney where he requested an increase in landing fees in the late night/early morning hours. The increase in the landing fees will include nighttime landings. The airport also investigated an additional surcharge for aircraft landing at night, but according to FAA personnel, an additional fee could bring legal action since there are specific criteria for a nighttime surcharge and Republic Airport does not meet that criteria.
